Best way to improve confidence jumping?

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Scampi

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My confidence jumping has gone downhill. I've tried putting little cross poles up but i feel i can only ever trot into them, i don't feel confident cantering into them incase we take off on the wrong stride and catleaps over (silly i know)

Any suggestions what i can try? i'm thinking maybe a double of little cross poles with one stride of canter in the middle? to get my confidence up! It's not the horse, it's me!!

I haven't the extra cash at the mo for lots of lessons!
 
Scampi said:
My confidence jumping has gone downhill. I've tried putting little cross poles up but i feel i can only ever trot into them, i don't feel confident cantering into them incase we take off on the wrong stride and catleaps over (silly i know)

Any suggestions what i can try? i'm thinking maybe a double of little cross poles with one stride of canter in the middle? to get my confidence up! It's not the horse, it's me!!

I haven't the extra cash at the mo for lots of lessons!
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Hi Scampi,

I had the same problem!

I had one jump lesson from someone who understands, and she just had me pratice the same easy jumps over and over and then popped them up a bit so my mare was choosing to canter into them.

I'm afraid the only way is practise practise practise with confidence.

The idea of a double of little cross poles sounds perfect to practice on too!

Good luck, confidence can be regained.

Only 2 months ago I wouldn't jump a 10cm cross pole, Tuesday I was jumping 3ft! :D

Also think positive!!!!
 
Thank you Kezz. I may try setting up a double and see how i feel once i get on board!! I never thought of putting the fence up until you suggested it, did you just trot in and then your mare chose to canter a stride before the fence? or placing pole?
 
But really, if your horse takes off a stride early or stride late it doesn't matter.

I'm not very confident jumping and like the horses that you can feel 'pull' you into the jump and you can feel when they are going to take off. I always used to be a bit uncomfortable riding 'unpredictable' horses. However, we took our last loan horse to a working hunter show and due to my rubbish show nerves i basically forgot how to ride and he just either got right up close to the jump or took off a stride out. At the end of the day, although my riding looked shocking, we survived and I never nearly came off. Now I just think, get on with it! I would say if anything work on getting a secure seat and lower leg so that you do feel comfortable if you and your horse are not on the same page coming in to a jump.
 
Also, we had a lesson with a show jumper and her advice was to trot into jumps until you are secure and confident. We were doing jumps with a pole on the ground a stride in front of the jump so that you just trot to it and then sit just after the pole. Helps to have something to focus on other than "eeekkk, jump!"
 
Can you get a couple of jump lessons or have someone experienced to help you?

I found it was best to have someone telling me what to do so I was concentrating on what they were saying rather than my own mind telling me things.

I had a serious knock to my jumping confidence a couple of months ago after teaching my mare to run out! I could not even come to pole on the gound in trot as I felt so petrified.

I have a great instructor who took me back to baby step bsics and now Im back to easily jumping over 2ft 6 again (big for me!)

I made myself have two jump lessons a work and I hated the build up towards them and felt sick as the time appraoched for my lesson. With the regular repitition it became easier. I look forward to my lessons now but still have some butterflies but I really enjoy it now.
 
I knocked my own confidence a few months ago - we were at a comp and I got the line into a jump all wrong, had no confidence in what I was asking of the horse so we sort of half jumped it (ended up in the middle of the jump :()
Since then I have been so so worried about getting it wrong again and maybe hurting my boy that I have had a bit of a brain block when it comes to jumping anything over 80cm.
Everyone kept telling me to just sit quietly and let him sort his strides out but I couldn't help interferring so we free schooled him! Watching him jump (BIG jumps!) all by himself gave me the confidence to let him find his own way into the jumps.

Now I am letting him sort his strides out himself over the smaller things, I can relax and learn to see the strides and anticipate take off!

Good luck :)
 
Scampi said:
Thank you Kezz. I may try setting up a double and see how i feel once i get on board!! I never thought of putting the fence up until you suggested it, did you just trot in and then your mare chose to canter a stride before the fence? or placing pole?
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Yes, I'm lucky because she loves jumping and doesn't really care what her numpty rider is up to! lol

I just started with a little cross pole on its own maybe a pole either side to give us something to think about and then popped the second one up to a cross pole when I was comfortable.

When I had my lesson I was just made to go over it again and again and then my instructor put two little cross poles up on a circle and had ne go over them one after the other, over and over and over again until I was happy. She kept sneaking the height of them up each time too.

I needed that repetition. Seems silly but because I managed it each time I felt more and more confidence.

Now I've even started to do little courses!
 
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Get a course set up - but leave all the poles on the floor :) Trot or canter round the 'course' until you are happy then slowly raise the poles to a height you are happy with then do it again!
 
When I started with a new instructor he used ground poles to sort out our striding.

Put the ground pole one stride in front of the jump. you aren't allowed to canter until you get to the pole. that should set you up for the correct take-off spot.

Once you get going, you can canter to the jump, then take away the ground pole once you're confident. :)
 
Broke_But_Happy said:
Get a course set up - but leave all the poles on the floor :) Trot or canter round the 'course' until you are happy then slowly raise the poles to a height you are happy with then do it again!
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I've been doing this too, good advice, it helps you feel more confident and before you know it you're jumping a decent course! :)
 
I could have written your post!

What really helped me was going away to some camps initially (stockland lovell res camp did us wonders)
Then.. i kept the confidence up by just trotting over small 2ft jumps and they would always be x poles- i would actually freak at 1ft straight bars because my horse can jump so large over them she throws me out of the saddle.
- fast forward a few weeks of making myself do all this and my confidence is growing.. by pot luck my YO (A SJ who competes internationally) asks if i want abit of a confidence boost so the following morning he made me jump a 2ft spread- as i cantered around to come back to it, he put it up- he did this until we reached 3ft and after i had jumped the 3ft 3 times we stopped and he told me my horse has much more scope than that and from now on if i ever freak out over a 1ft straight bar i need to remember this moment. (i even took a photo of the jump as proof to remnd myself)

Since then, im now jumping a good 2'3 course set up at home with only one x pole and the rest as straights with two 2'6 spreads in there to MAKE myself jump them. My horse loves it- she only ever refuses if i get scared of a jump and infact this has made me want to jump them to make sure i dont teach her to refuse, until i can stop being scared at the 2'6 spreads i wont move up a gear. :D

Its nothing to a lot of people- 2'3 is tiny to others but to me, my confidence and my horses confidence (shes young) its certainly a step up from me bottling out of a 1ft jump!
 
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